Environmental ▼News Looking beyond Kyoto he fate of the Kyoto Protocol is Jeff Fiedler of the Natural Resources projected to rise to 34% above 1990 unlikely to be resolved before Defense Council, an environmental levels by 2010. Both the report and next month because Russian group. EU officials point out, however, that officials remain coy as to whether Nevertheless, even EU countries, these figures do not take into acor not they are going to embrace which have been the protocol’s count the reductions expected from the treaty. However, the latest staunchest supporters, will not the EU-wide emissions trading sysclimate change talks held last meet their 8% Kyoto reduction tartem set to open in 2005 (Environ. December in Milan showed that get with existing policies, according Sci. Technol. 2003, 37 (17), 321A). officials from other countries— to a recent report by the European Likewise, Kyoto’s other flexible particularly the European Union Environment Agency. In fact, only mechanisms, which allow countries (EU), Japan, and Canada— to meet part of their commitare moving ahead with legisments by investing in greenlation to curb carbon dioxide house gas reduction projects emissions, despite intense in developing countries, are U.S. opposition to mandatory expected to net additional greenhouse gas emissions emissions reductions. cuts. EU officials waffled a bit As things now stand, following the Milan talks; Russian officials still hold the Energy Commissioner Loyola trump card that will deterde Palacio expressed conmine whether the internacerns that EU companies tional treaty can enter into could be placed at a competforce. The protocol calls on itive disadvantage if Russia industrialized countries to fails to ratify the protocol. reduce emissions by an averHowever, Romano Prodi, age of 5% from 1990 levels president of the European by 2012. Implementation Commission (EC), later said requires ratification by 55 that the EC still stands becountries, including those hind the treaty and will see responsible for 55% of into its full implementation in dustrialized countries’ 1990 the EU regardless of whether emissions. But because the or not the protocol enters Bush Administration withinto force. drew U.S. support of the A key sticking point in inprotocol, only Russia’s ratiternational emissions reducfication can move the treaty tion efforts, however, is the beyond the 55% trigger. United States, which, as the Countries that back the biggest greenhouse gas emitprotocol have been encourter, is responsible for roughly Increasing automobile traffic is jeopardizing the EU’s aging Russia’s ratification for 30% of the world’s total emisability to meet the Kyoto Protocol’s 8% greenhouse gas months. Russian officials sent reduction targets. sions. Without real U.S. acmixed signals at the talks in tion on the climate change Milan, however, and ultimately said two countries—Sweden and the front, global emissions will be diffia decision would have to wait until United Kingdom—will meet their cult to curb, says Elliot Diringer, diafter the presidential elections in commitments. Others, including rector of international strategies for March. Denmark, Spain, Ireland, Austria, the Pew Center on Global Climate Even if the Russians fail to apand Belgium, will miss their targets Change, an independent think prove the protocol, its mere exisby more than 20%. tank. tence “has demonstrably forced The report attributes most of the Instead of mandatory emissions countries to come up with a serious blame to runaway emissions from caps, the Bush Administration is plan to achieve compliance,” says road and air transport, which are banking on technological breakPHOTODISC
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throughs and voluntary efforts by industry to slow the growth rate of emissions, but not total emissions. At the Milan talks, U.S. officials highlighted efforts by state and local governments in the United States to address climate change and touted federal investments in carbon sequestration, hydrogen, and advanced nuclear technologies as further evidence of efforts to curb emissions. Environmentalists derided such statements, however, noting that the Bush Administration has worked to thwart many of these actions (Environ. Sci. Technol. 2004, 38 (01), 30A−31A). “We need a technological revolution to solve the climate issue,” Diringer says. In a new report, Beyond Kyoto: Advancing the International Effort against Climate Change, Pew researchers point out
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that investing public resources in long-term technology initiatives isn’t enough to kick off the revolution. “We need to give market incentives, both to take up existing technologies that aren’t being used as effectively as they could be and to invest private resources in longterm technology research,” adds Diringer. To do that, he contends, realistic and clear goals need to be set in the form of regulations. In addition, long-term commitments going beyond Kyoto’s 2012 endpoint and participation by all the major emitting countries, both developed and developing, are necessary if dangerous climate change is to be avoided, says Stephan Singer, head of climate and energy policy for the World Wildlife Fund, an environmental group. —KRIS CHRISTEN
P3 engineering awards To spur the creation of sustainable solutions to environmental problems, the U.S EPA and the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) announced a national student design competition in December. The $10,000 People, Prosperity and the Planet (P3) Award, which is supported by 30 partners in the federal government, industry, and professional societies, will recognize college students’ projects that benefit the environment and are not prohibitively expensive. “The most important problem[s] facing the planet [are] consuming resources at a rate faster than the planet can produce them and excreting waste at a rate the planet can’t absorb,” said NAE President William Wulf when the program was announced. The competition began in January, and up to 50 awards will be made in the fall of 2004. For more information, go to http://es.epa.gov/ncer/p3.
Subways grind out a dose of fine metals which aims to assess personal exposures to air toxics among high school students in urban areas. Students from a Harlem high school carried personal PM2.5 monGREG HILLJE
New York City (NYC) subway riders have an increased exposure to fine particles of some metals, according to a Columbia/Harvard study published in this issue of ES&T (pp 732−737). The study establishes that steel dust from subway rails contributes to relatively high levels of airborne iron, chromium, and manganese near NYC subway platforms. However, the measured exposures are more than 3 orders of magnitude below the standards set by the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration, and health effects at these low levels have not been established. “The chronic exposure may be of concern to people who commute. We think it is totally driven by their time spent in the subway, but we don’t know if there are health effects,” says the study’s lead author, Steven Chillrud. The research was conducted as part of the TEACH (Toxic Exposure Assessment, a Columbia/Harvard) study,
High school students wearing personal monitors revealed that dust from subway rails exposes riders to iron, chromium, and manganese.
Surprisingly high levels of Deca flame retardant The levels of a chemical associated with the Deca brominated flame retardant, which is the world’s most widely used polybrominated diphenyl ether (PBDE) retardant, in a group of U.K. volunteers approach those previously recorded only in Swedish electronics workers who were occupationally exposed to the chemical, according to a study by WWF UK, an environmental group. The blood samples from 155 volunteers from 13 locations in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales were analyzed by researchers at the University of Lancaster for PCBs and organochlorine pesticides such as lindane and DDT, as well as PBDEs. For more information, go to www.wwf-uk. org.
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